The last piece

One of the first projects we tackled in the new year was the final piece of our pantry make-over. While there are still a few organizing things remaining, the last major addition to the pantry was a spice rack. Our spices truly were getting the best of us and when I really thought about it, so were our oils and vinegars.

I either had to grab a chair to reach an oil or vinegar I needed or we bought more thinking we had run out when all along we had a perfectly good bottle of ____ vinegar (or oil) hiding in the back of the shelf. I think we have 4 bottles of apple cider vinegar for this exact reason.

And the spices numbered so many that they were overflowing into an extremely unorganized mess on the bottom shelves of another cabinet.

While having the spices and oils/vinegars right next to the stove is helpful, our pantry door is essentially right next to the stove when open. So we had no issue rethinking our kitchen organization and moving those items to the pantry.

When we looked at the door we decided building two separate units would be the best solution and the husband got to work on it one Saturday morning. It took him a few hours to build both racks and install them. I opted to leave them unfinished. I thought the stain we used for the shelves would be too dark and I hate painting so...unfinished they stay! :)

In the next picture you can see our new spice bottles. We buy a lot of spices in the bulk food section of the grocery store and needed bottles that would keep them fresh. We searched a number of places (Ikea, Container Store, World Market, etc) but had a difficult time finding containers that had a quality seal. Our search ended when I found these bottles. Woo-hoo!